Biden’s Sep. 5 fundraiser, co-hosted by natural gas company co-founder Andrew Goldman, brings into focus his several connections to the natural gas giant.

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Biden claimed that Andrew Goldman, the co-founder of Western LNG and a former Biden adviser who is co-hosting a fundraiser for Biden today, is not a fossil fuel executive. Later in the town hall, Biden told CNN host Anderson Cooper that he didn’t realize that Goldman is involved in the natural gas industry. Regardless of what Biden knew, his ties to Goldman bring into focus his significant connections to the much larger liquefied natural gas firm Cheniere Energy. Goldman’s fellow Western LNG co-founder, CEO Davis Thames, was previously senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cheniere Energy, a company that paid Biden’s current climate adviser more than a million dollars to serve on its board until 2018. And a former Biden adviser lobbied for the company.

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Reporter Naomi LaChance unearthed a 2018 document filed by Thames with the British Columbia Utilities Commission that lists Goldman as part of “a seasoned team of executives” of Western LNG. Goldman, who is also chief investment officer of Hildred Capital Partners, is “a long-term investor in the liquefied natural gas sector,” according to the filing. Hildred Capital Partners invests in companies in the pharmaceutical and energy industries, among others.Goldman’s close business relationship with the former chief financial officer of Cheniere Energy has yet to be scrutinized. Thames made a huge amount of money from Cheniere, including $31.8 million from 2012 to 2014, per a 2015 SEC filing. When Biden entered the 2020 race, he picked Heather Zichal, a former Obama official who made nearly $1.1 million as a member of Cheniere’s board of directors from 2014 to 2018, as his climate adviser. Zichal nearly overlapped with Goldman at Cheniere; Goldman left the company in March 2014, and Zichal joined its board in June 2014. Thames and Zichal appear side-by-side in the 2015 SEC filing listing their stock holdings.

Biden has a third connection to Cheniere Energy. Former Cheniere lobbyist and vice president Ankit Desai was Biden’s political director for nine months in 2005, according to an archived version of his LinkedIn page. Desai was a vice president at Cheniere from 2013-17, meaning Zichal was on the board for three of those years. In April 2012, when Zichal was Obama’s top energy and climate adviser, Cheniere Energy became the first company to obtain a permit from the administration to export liquefied natural gas. Zichal met with Desai, then-Cheniere CEO Charif Souki, and another Cheniere executive in early 2013 before leaving and joining the Cheniere board. Desai and Zichal previously worked together on former Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.